Elvira Amazar (1890s – February 7, 1971), also known as Vera Amazar or Elaine Amazar, was a Serbian-born Russian-American soprano singer and actress. She was also the subject of the first photograph described as "cheesecake", in 1917.
Early life Elvira Amazar was born in Serbia. Her father was a mining engineer. She was orphaned as a small girl, when both parents died during a strike. Relatives in Poland took her in, and she was educated in Germany and Moscow. She studied music in Paris and Milan."Elvira Amazar, Lyric Soprano" Musical Courier (September 27, 1917): 26. Among her teachers were Félia Litvinne and Umberto Masetti."Elvira Amazar to Appear in Concert Here This Season" Musical America (September 29, 1917): 21.
Career
Amazar began her singing career at the Marinskiy Theater in St. Petersburg (Petrograd), Russia, in Il Pagliacci by Leoncavallo Fedoroff family archive and found further success in Monte Carlo and Milan. She moved to the United States during World War I, a member of the Boston National Opera Company and a client of the Bel Canto Music Bureau."Elvira Amazar Engagements; Bel Canto Bureau Items" Musical Courier (November 1, 1917): 38. She sued her lover, baritone Georges Baklanoff, for an assault while they were on a Pacific Coast tour in 1917."Russian Soprano Sues Baritone for $25,000, Alleging Assault" Musical America (May 5, 1917): 44. They later reached a settlement."Elvira Amazar Withdraws Suit Against George Baklanoff" Musical America (May 19, 1917): 15.
Amazar appeared in three silent films, The Volcano (1919), As a Man Thinks (1919),Alan Gevinson, Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911–1960 (University of California Press 1999): 55. and L'Aviateur Masqué (1922). She had a cabaret act in Paris in 1920.Simon Morrison, Lina and Serge: The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev (HMH 2013): 57–60.
In 1917 she appeared in Ziegfeld's Follies of 1917. In 1925, Amazar was in the cast of another revue, Sinners of 1925, in New York. In 1927 and 1928, she was in the cast of Blossom Time, an operetta based loosely on the life of composer Franz Schubert."Majestic Theatre" Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society (May 12, 1928): 18. via Newspapers.com"Fitting Exponent of Vixenish Prima Donna Promised in 'Blossom Time'" Courier-Journal (October 16, 1927): 31. via Newspapers.com
"Cheesecake" Amazar was known for wearing short skirts and high heels,"Wear 'em 9 Inches Above Ground, Girls!" News Journal (October 1, 1915): 2. via Newspapers.com and is often mentioned in connection with the term "cheesecake". As the story goes,Vic Timoner, "Harbor Lights" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 13, 1954): 21. via Newspapers.com in 1915, Amazar raised her skirt to show some of her bare leg for a photograph."Women Here Do Not Know Makeup Art" Philadelphia Inquirer (October 2, 1915): 2. via Newspapers.com The photographer was George Miller. Miller's editor liked the image enough to declare it "better than cheesecake," and the word "cheesecake" became a term for photographs of attractive young women baring some skin.Tracey Owens Patton, Sally M. Schedlock, Gender, Whiteness, and Power in Rodeo: Breaking Away from the Ties of Sexism and Racism (Lexington Books 2012): 99.
Personal life Elvira Amazar was involved with a married colleague, George Baklanoff, for several years."The Baklanoff-Amazar Affair" Musical Courier (January 15, 1920): 8. (His wife and children lived in Russia.) Her claims that he deceived her into traveling with him"Music's Charms Fail" Daily News (January 8, 1920): 3. via Newspapers.com led to their arrests in Chicago, under the Mann Act, in 1920."Ha! Artistic Temperament and Cruel Laws Clash Again" Oregon Daily Journal (February 1, 1920): 56. via Newspapers.com The couple left for Paris soon after they were charged;"Off for Paris, but not Together" Daily News (April 5, 1920): 7. via Newspapers.com Baklanoff was allowed to re-enter the United States in 1921, and the deportation orders were dropped by 1922."Deportation of Baklanoff Is Dropped by U. S." Chicago Sunday Tribune (February 12, 1922): 10. via Newspapers.com She became a citizen of the United States in 1929."Actress is Now American Citizen" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (May 7, 1929): 15. via Newspapers.com
She had a daughter, Tatiana Amazar (1911–1979), born in Russia, who became a cookbook author and food editor."Tatiana Nichols, 68, Dies; Food Authority, Musician" Baltimore Sun (May 11, 1979): 15. via Newspapers.com Elvira Amazar died in New York City in 1971, in her seventies.
References
External links
"Wharburton Gamble, Elaine Amazar, and Henry Clive in a scene still" (1919), a photograph at the Wisconsin Historical Society.